PTC to swear in new mayor, council members Jan. 2

Sun, 12/29/2013 - 9:53amJohn Munford

Peachtree City’s new mayor and new councilmember will be sworn into office Jan. 2 at what is expected to be a very brief meeting of the new city council.

At its Dec. 19 meeting, council had considered canceling the Jan. 2 meeting altogether due to a lack of agenda items. But it soon became apparent that the first meeting of the new year had one important task to accomplish: the swearing-in of new mayor Vanessa Fleisch, new councilman Terry Ernst and re-elected councilwoman Kim Learnard.

Council asked for city staffers to be told they didn’t need to come to the meeting due to the lack of normal business items, but City Manager Jim Pennington noted that at least some of them might like to attend the ceremony.

While the new-look city council will have nothing to vote on, the swearing-in marks a new political era for the city in some respects. Fleisch will be the city’s first female mayor and there will be some “new blood” on council between recently sworn-in councilman Mike King and Ernst.

Ernst, who won the Post 4 seat being vacated by Fleisch, is a familiar face to many in the city having served a lengthy career at the police department. Last year his captain’s position was one of three eliminated by the city during a reorganization of the police department.

King was sworn in to office earlier this month since the election he won was for the unexpired Post 2 seat formerly held by George Dienhart. Dienhart had resigned from office to run what would become an unsuccessful bid for the mayor’s seat.